Dr. Sudarshana has projects on black line disease of walnut, grape leaf roll-associated viruses and necrotic union disorders of stone fruits and grapes.His program includes both applied and molecular biology with emphasis on detection and characterization of new viruses.

Biography:

Dr. Sudarshana received his BSc(Agri) & MSc(Agri) with a major in Agricultural Microbiology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore India. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Sciences with a major in Plant Pathology in 1995 from the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. Before commencing his doctoral program, Dr. Sudarshana worked as a research associate at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India in the Legumes program where he was associated with studies on aspects of rhizobia and nitrogen fixation by garbanzo beans (chickpea) and development of purification protocals and diagnostics for peanut viruses and provided instructional services in virus diagnostics programs.His doctoral work was on the molecularcharacterization of Tobacco rattle virus, the causal agent of corky ringspot disease in potato tubers, and generation of transgenic potato lines expressing viral genes for pathogen-mediated resistance. After his Ph.D., Dr. Sudarshana moved to UC Davis to work as a post-doctoral fellow on interactions of Bean dwarfmosaic virus and common bean (Phaselous vulgaris) cultivars unravelling the resistance response by the plant host.He also cloned and characterized Cucurbit leaf crumple virus, a new cucurbit virus found in Southern California. In 2001, he joined a privately held plant biotech company in India as a Group Leader in genomics. He returned to UC Davis in 2002 and worked as a staff scientist on biology of Lettuce infectious yellow virus, development of transgenic citrus rootstock for resistance to Citrus tristeza virus by RNAi-mediated silencing, and construction of an inducible Cucumber mosaic virus amplicon for production of plant-based therapeutic proteins. From 2005-2008, Dr. Sudarshana was a research scientist at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, at UC Davis, where he conducted studies on the effects of post-harvest storage conditions on the survival and growth of Escherichia coli o157:H7 on lettuce. At various stages in his career, Dr. Sudarshana has provided services to plant health improvement by developing antisera to plant viruses of importance in plant and seed health.